1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to games for the construction of English words, English phrases, Chinese terms and phrases, mathematical equations and number series, and chemical expressions on a lattice-like game board with the use of a display means. These games are not designed to be played on pre-determined patterns.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Present word games are mostly designed for the construction of English words or words using Roman letters. Such games, like the Holes model, U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,580, the Kieva model, U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,386, the Mayas model, U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,191 as well as the Beskrone model, U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,236, all have game pieces that hold only one letter each. As such, words are formed letter by letter. With such a limitation, the chance of forming a word with six or more letters is very low (no chance in the cases of the Kleva and Beskrone models).
The Japanese model (patent no. 6-261969) word game is a cross-word puzze type which requires a player to complete a predetermined group pattern of English words. Besides having the same weaknesses as the other word games mentioned, no apparatus is provided for a player to view all the faces of the game piece at a glance and thus making the search for a letter difficult. Instead, a game player must turn a group of dies in his hand for as many as twenty five times in order to select a letter. Removal of game pieces out of the game board by using fingers poses difficulty to a Caucasian or anyone having bigger fingertips. Furthermore, such a removal method makes it impossible for the fabrication of a traveler's model which necessary requires smaller dimensions. In addition, as the inserted game pieces protrude out of the game board, putting markings on the upwardly directed face of the game board for game purposes is not practical.
The Kleva word game and mathematical game are based on predetermined patterns. The model provides no means for extraction of a game piece out of the cavity of the game board.
Having noticed the weakness in forming longer English words, a study was conducted on their composition of them. In that study, fifty pages of "Webster's New Dictionary & Thearsaurus" were sampled randomly. Out of the 1,298 words sampled, more than three quarters of them consisted of six or more letters. This study has revealed the fact that most word games available today are not designed to cover the vast amount of English vocabulary.
Due to analogous reasons, prior designs are not capable of handling Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters as a large number of game pieces are required.
The present invention overcomes the above mentioned problems, with the use of cubic game pieces and game piece display means. For constructing words with six or more letters, a plurality of game pieces are used so as to hold a plurality of prefixes, suffixes, short words, letter strings, et cetera. In the case of the Chinese language game, one hundred pieces of game piece hold six hundred Chinese characters that could be used to form more than twenty five thousand Chinese terms.
However, without the display means, one would find searching for a desired indicium (a letter or a character) out of forty-two faces of seven game pieces extremely tedious. The display means allows a player to place seven game pieces in seven orientation notches that orient them for viewing. In such an orientation, three faces of each piece can be seen directly, i.e. two tilted side faces and the top face; the two rear faces can be seen in the top mirror and the bottom face can be seen in the bottom mirror. Although the mirrors laterally invert all images, the players will soon become accustomed after several rounds of the games.
In another orientation, the game pieces are aligned with the two parallel sides of the orientation slot. In this orientation, four faces of a game piece can be seen and among them the front and top faces can be seen directly, one rear face is shown in the top mirror and the bottom face in the bottom mirror. The orientation slot can take up to eight game pieces in this orientation. One major advantage is that the images are not `tilted`, thus it offers a better viewing effect. Children and old folks who are not capable of handling a large number of indicia as well as those who prefer a partial game benefit from this orientation.
An orientation mark is provided on the upwardly directed side of the lattice to help in locating the game starting position and more importantly, to identify the on-board multiple scoring markings. The starting position and multiple scoring markings are necessary in minimizing the chances of an uneven distribution of game pieces and they come with additional score incentives.
The present invention provides the following advantages over existing and similar games.
1. High capacity for indicia--this invention provides an indicia capacity as much as six times that of aforementioned games.
2. Forty-two faces in one glance--the game piece display means enables a player to view all the forty-two faces of seven cubic game pieces in one glance. Longer words, phrases and even Chinese terms or Chinese phrases can be formed easily. Options for viewing twenty-eight faces or less are available.
3. Model for travelers--the extraction means devised by the present invention make fabrication of a `traveling` model possible since smaller dimensions do not pose extraction problems.
4. Choices of game levels--as there are six faces on each game piece, the faces can be utilized to group indicia based on the degree of difficulty in constructing words, et cetera. The players can choose from the toughest to the easiest level before a game is started or even during a game.
5. Multivariate games--making use of the six faces for grouping, a game set can be made to contain several games, e.g. word games for two languages.
6. Convenient to use--due to the structure of the game board, game pieces placed therein do not get dislocated or drop out when they encounter an external force or when the game board is placed aslant. Therefore the present invention is convenient to use even in moving vehicles.
7. Simple construction--construction of the invention is simple. It is easy and not costly to fabricate.